By IANS
New Delhi : Sachin Tendulkar, the lone witness to the Harbhajan Singh-Andrew Symonds confrontation during the second Test against Australia in Sydney, has thrown his weight behind the off-spinner.
In an SMS to Sharad Pawar, president of the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI), Tendulkar, who was batting along with Harbhajan when the incident happened, informed him that his colleague was clean.
“Harbhajan is innocent and I can assure you on this. In this hour of crisis, the board should stand with him. I suggest that we should play in Perth only when the ban is lifted,” said a BCCI source.
Harbhajan and Symonds exchanged some words in the middle of the Sydney Cricket Ground and Tendulkar, the other batsman at the crease, soon joined them.
Later, the Australians alleged that Harbhajan had made racial comments against Symonds without audio/visual proof of the same. But, to the horror of the Indian team, International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Mike Proctor banned the spinner for three Tests, prompting hue and cry.
The BCCI appealed to the ICC to rescind the ban and asked the Indian team to defer their departure for Canberra from Sydney until the ICC overturns Harbhajan’s punishment.
India lost the second Test by 122 runs to go 0-2 down in the four-Test series.